SCIENCE

combining individuals into a multi-individual organization, a social organism surely nev; in the history of the world. Tbis biological trend and process is cons.tructing a sooial organi-m the cohesion of which depends mainly on u property developed so specifically in man as to be, brosdly speaking, his alone, namely, a mind actuated by instincts but instrumented with reason. Man, often Nature's rebel, as Sir B y Lankester has luminously said, can, viewing this great supra-individual process, shape his courses conformably with i t even as an in-dividual, feeling that in this case to rebel would be to sink lower rather than to continue hss own evolution upward.

C. S. XHERRTXGTOX

CAN WASTE OF MENTAL EFFORT BE AVOIDED

OXE of the most startling phenomena in the history of science and invention is the lack of economy of mental effort. As a rule the great discoveries in science have not been made once, but haye been repeated several times. I t is as though engineers had built several Panama canals when only one was needed, thereby pro- ducing financial waste. At the recent deal11 of Alexander Graham Bell the daily press reminds us that he invented the telephone. But he 1vs9 not the only one who accomplishecl this. On the very day that Bell patented his telephone, Elisha Gray applied for a patent for an instru- ment of similar kind. At an ea~nlier date Phillip Reis sent a speaking niachine to the emperor of Russia. The same is true in the invention of the telegraph. KO historian of science can give Samuel Lioise exolusive credit. Before him, Jweph Henry at Albany, by tlle att~action of an electromagnet, produced audi- ble signals a t a distance. Gauss and Meber sent messages by an electromagnetic device over wires connecting the Observatory and Physical Cabinet at Gottingen. Tlle mental effort of inventing the teleg~aph ancl telephone was made, not once, but several times.

These are only two of the numerous illus-trations which might be g i ~ e n of duplication in applied science. I n pure science the situa- tion is even worse. Waste of effort throngh

repelition occurred in thc discovery of the l a w of gases, Ohm's law in eleclricity, the principle of the conservation of energy, logal-ithms, de- terminants, J. W. Gibb's eqnilibrium of chem- ical systems and Meadel's law. The full ac-counts of reproduction of scientific discovery and invention would fill a large book. The waste of gray matter has resembled the prodi- gality of the pine-tree which produces millions of pollen pparticIes for eTery new plant that is actaally started.

It may be argued that the waste occurs only in the records of centuries which are passed, that the number of scientific jownals has now increased so greatly that scientific results can be published promptly. As a matter of fact, the greater number of journals has not brought effective relief. Tlie danger of unnecessary repetition is still with us. Not only is the army of scientific workers t~-enlenclously aug- mented, so that even now the editorial desks are overloaded with able manuscripts and pub- lication is not so prompt as some suppose, but the long list of scientific journals has greatly augmented the labor on the part of any on; wol-key to asce;tain what new results have been reached in his particular field of acti;itv. Paradoxical as it may seem, the publications themselves, by their great mass, clog the vork- er's efforts to find what he desires.

I t is still true that investigators are fre-quently unacquainted with results already reached by others. And so it frequently hap. pens that the !best brains are exercised to fhr utmost in discovering things already discovered by others. Creative genius is rare. There are in a generation few cubic decimeters of brains in a nation, capable of materially advancing science, and yet histoyg shows that in the:past a large part of these precious cubic decimeterc of gray nlatter has ,been expended upon need- less repetition.

I s it not possible to improve on the present wasteful methods of conducting research? There is indeed need of persistence in the en- deavor that

No subtle, bright and novel thought In this wide world shall come to naught; No germ of purest ray serene Shall scintillate b;r us unseen.

[VOL.LVI, NO. 1448

Can the pathfinders of the intellect conduct their inquiries as if organized in a team for a relay race, each individual carrying the torch of light from the point reached by his prede- cessor'! Such a procedure ~voulil prevent repe- tition. But unfortunately the problem before us is too complex to admit of such sinlple solu- tion. The impracticability of the relay plan is evident from the consideration that when A has announced some startling novelty, not only B. but also C, D and I? may take u p the further pursuit of the subject. And i t is incleecl well that it should be so, fo r not every B, C, D and E may be fortunate to travel in tlie right direc- tion and reaeh desired results. Tlie probability of farther penetration into the nnlinown is increased when several able minds are a t work simultaneously, rather than one alone. &lore-over, several workers ?nay expect to obtain a greater volume of new lraowledge. Cnder these circumstances some duplication is quite certain and can not be avoided. But when a goal has been reached by onc or more men, there should be a n effective system of distribu- tion of this knowleclge that will stop all unnec- essary intellectual endeavor.

I n the prevention of wayte the capitalist can play a leading sale. A serious difficulty en-coun:erecl i n the United States a t the present time is the lack of funds for prompt publica- tion. I n mathematics, fo r example, no new books in a d ~ a n c e d fields have been issued i n this country i n recent years. Several manu-scripts are avaiting publication. Moi<eos-er, the American periodicals devoted to research articles are financally unable to print articles except afrer long delay. Terminal station; for the distribution of scientific products are greatly congesteci. X o i e o ~ e r , there is a crying need for eficient ancl prompt biblioglaphy and abstiacts of scientific output. It is here that the sympathetic capitalist c:in contribute to the advaricemcnt of science almost as much as he could, were he himself one of Ihe fo~emost rescarch workers. H e can contribute to a very essential phase of scientiec progress, namely, the prompt distribution of new knowledge and the prevention of avoidable svasle of effort. Essential agencies i n the dissemination of knowledge are abstracts ancl bibliographies.

Except i n chemistry and medicine, the Unitecl Stntes has been derelict i n the discharge of i ts share of obligation in this regard. The Great T a r has disarranged what was being accom-plished in Europe and the present interna-tional situation is much worse than that of eight years ago.

The need of the liour is not only adequate funds f o r printing, but also new, inore instan- taneous and effecti.ve methods of distribution. Soltie advance is desired which will accomplish for the twentieth century what the invention of printing achieved for the fifteenth century and photography f o r the nineteenth centlwy. Scientific discovery should take up as one of its problems its own more efficient progress. Science should bcnd its efforts to devise new plans t o aceelmate its own rate of advance-ment. I s i t not poss?ble f o r progress to be made on the compound interest or the snow-ball mode of accretion? The printing press will not be superseded, but i t should be sup- plemented by new agencies. The possibilities of the l*adiophone seem almost unlimited. It can be made to do what i t is not yet doing. When John Smith has a new result, i t lies theoretically mitliin his power to transmit it instantaneously to his co-workers all over the -ivorld. And if such were done, the largest par t of tlie waste of niental effort could be avoided, At present this mrthod lends itdelf more readily to some flelds of science than to others. As yet, i t is difficult to see how the "radio" could be effeatively used i n diffusing advanced mathematics that is expressed, per- haps, in the notation of differential equations or in the Peano synibolism. "Radio" appeals, not to the eye, but to the ear. Moreover, it tran,mits a message tlial is no) permanent, but vanishes a3 quiclc as wink. But, probably even in abstruse mathematics, modes of quick and permanent commnnication by wireless telegra- phy will be found to lie within the range of practicability.

The instantaneous distribution of intelli-gence in the form of a permanent record will remove all avoidable waste of scientific effort.